She Makes Him Laugh
by RayWritesThings
Summary: Donna and the Doctor bring back a present for Wilf. Pre-Relationship


**Hello, readers. I've decided to start cross-posting some of my fics from AO3 and tumblr over to FFN, so if you recognize this story most likely you've read it on either of my accounts there (Ray_Writes and raywritesthings, respectively). If you haven't read it before, I hope you enjoy!**

**-RayWritesThings**

**She Makes Him Laugh**

Wilfred Mott was woken from a light doze one late afternoon by the strangest sound he'd heard in his life. A sort of wheezing and groaning that would've had anyone taking their car down to the mechanic's in a fright. He sat up, startled, in his chair — Sylvia was always saying he should just go to bed, but he never meant to fall asleep and anyway his back never minded it too much — and looked about blearily.

The noises had stopped, so he got himself on his feet and shuffled to the front door. A glance up and down the block didn't reveal anything immediate. He wandered out onto the path all the same.

Then distantly, he heard a new sound. A faint, high pitched whirr. It was coming from the back! Quickly, Wilf turned and cut through the house out to the back door. There was nothing there either, but when he looked up the hill—

"Oh!" Wilf said to himself quietly. There it was, the blue box! And there was his granddaughter and that alien Doctor of hers. Wilf hurried up the hill as fast as he could.

Long before he approached he could hear the two of them talking.

"You're sure you know what you're doing?"

"Course I do, Donna. You've seen me take apart and reassemble more complicated things than this."

"Yeah, but this is important."

"So was the missile defense system on Fanfarna."

"It's _special _then. You've no idea how much my mum and dad spent on this. Gramps would be heartbroken."

"And Sylvia would be furious, I'm sure."

"Oi! We can't all go around sonicing cash machines and breaking the Bank of England!"

"I've never broken the Bank of England! Well, I have broken _in _, but in fairness my judgement was severely impaired at the time."

"You _what _?"

"Long story. Point is, I will not break this telescope and bankrupt the entire Noble-Mott family. Don't you trust me?"

"Seriously wondering right about now."

" _Donnaaa _."

"Fine, yes! I trust you. Happy?"

"Brilliant!"

He crested the hill just in time to see the Doctor grinning broadly up at Donna from where he was crouched down by his telescope. They'd gotten it out of the shed he kept it locked in somehow, and his granddaughter had been hovering beside it protectively. Now she backed up, though her doing so allowed the alien to catch sight of him.

"Oh, Wilfred! Hello!"

Donna whirled about. "There goes surprising him. Hey, Gramps!"

"I'd say this is a surprise all on its own, you two turning up," he remarked, embracing his granddaughter. "Hey! What's brought you back here, then? Taking a break from all them aliens and planets?"

"Yeah, bit of one. How've you and mum been?"

"Oh, just fine," he dismissed. "Nothing to report. Not anything exciting as what you've got, eh?" He looked eagerly between them. "You could come down to the house, have a cuppa. What's all this about then?" He gestured to his telescope still standing between the pair.

It was only now that he noticed the Doctor holding a strange silver instrument with a blue tip in one hand. "Just a bit of tinkering. Nothing to worry about, Wilf. You're getting an upgrade."

"Upgrade?"

"We were on this rest stop for a sort of space highway," Donna explained. "Rocketships, the proper kind, that sort of thing. He skips all that normally."

"And a good thing, too. The traffic's murder," the Doctor remarked, hitting a button on his device that made the same whirring noise Wilfred had heard earlier. It glowed and he watched in fascination as the screws of his telescope undid themselves and fell one by one into his open palm.

" _Anyway _," Donna continued smoothly over the alien, "they were selling these telescopes for real cheap. I thought it'd be wizard if I could bring you back one of those. You'd be able to see all sorts of stuff from right here! This one," she said, indicating the Doctor with a tilt of the head, "said I couldn't do that, though."

"It's dangerous to introduce future technology to the past, Donna," the Doctor rattled off without even looking up from his work.

She'd clearly anticipated his response, for she didn't even bat an eye before saying, "I hardly knew you half an hour before you were giving me stuff."

The Doctor glanced at her for a moment. "Just the ring."

"He gave you a ring?" Wilf asked with interest, the first he'd been able to cut into their seamless back-and-forth.

Donna blanched. "Not like that. It was a bio-damper-thing, for the wedding."

"The wedding?"

" _My _wedding. The one at Christmas," she elaborated to his slight disappointment.

"Wasn't exactly a wedding, as it turned out," the Doctor muttered, grinning as Donna leveled him with a glare that would've had most men running for cover.

Sylvia had said she'd seen the Doctor there. Wilf still didn't know the whole story, but it was shaping up to be a rather good one from the sounds of it!

"Alright," he agreed. "So what does this have to do with the telescope I've got? It's just fine, really." The Doctor had made quick work of disassembling it in front of his eyes, and while he trusted this man to take care of his granddaughter he couldn't help a slight apprehension over his most prized possession.

"Fine, I suppose, for the twenty-first century," the Doctor allowed. "But you've seen all it could show you on its own and you know there's more out there, don't you, Wilf? An astronomer like you! Just isn't right for you to be limited."

"Will you get on with it?" Donna requested, prodding the alien in the shoulder. She was smiling all the while though, and kept looking to Wilf eagerly.

The Doctor obliged her. "The reason it's a bad idea to introduce future tech into the past is the risk that it might fall into the wrong hands. Alter the timeline, erase the future events that led to its creation in the first place — wham! Big paradox." The alien paused his tinkering to address him directly. "But Donna reckons you can be trusted, Wilfred Mott, and I trust Donna Noble's judgement more than most things in the universe."

"Whatever it is, Doctor, I wouldn't dream of letting someone else get ahold of it," he assured, standing up just a little straighter.

"And that's the plan!" The alien took something out of his pocket. It looked like a pair of tiny mirrors. "I'm building the future technology _into _your telescope. Outside casing will look exactly the same to the casual observer. We'll be the only ones who know the difference." He winked up at Donna, then hefted the telescope into his arms. "Should have it done before nightfall, and then you can give it a go."

"Oh, well, that's wonderful! Thank you, Doctor."

"Don't go thanking him yet. Let's see if it works first," Donna cautioned.

"I told you I've built things a hundred times more complex than this, Donna!" The Doctor insisted in an injured tone.

"He's told me only about a hundred times, too," she quipped. "Might as well have that cuppa while we wait. I've got so much to tell you. Oi, Spaceman, you want any?" His granddaughter called over her shoulder as she led him back down the hill.

"Oh yes," replied the Doctor, re-immersed in the telescope parts.

"Yes what?"

" _Please _. And don't forget to tell him about the Kravani! You were brilliant with them."

"I'll get to it when I get to it." Donna shook her head. They entered the kitchen and she set to work starting the kettle and pulling mugs down from the cupboard. She also fetched the sugar, which neither of them took — he used to, but Sylvia said it wasn't good for his health and she always made such a fuss.

"So the Kravani, was it?"

"It's been two weeks since then. Honestly, he never shuts up about it, I swear." She glanced at Wilf and her lips quirked in bemusement. "What are you smiling about?"

"Oh, just happy you're home, sweetheart," he answered.

"Sure. You were the one saying to go off and see the universe," she reminded shrewdly.

"Well a visit in between every now and then can't hurt."

"No," she agreed with a smile. "So, let me think. What did I tell you about last?"

"There was that planet with the- the Odd fellas or something, I think."

"Ood. Yeah, that sounds right."

She launched back into the fantastic stories of her travels. Planets, Agatha Christie, half-fish people. It all sounded so marvellous, and he was thrilled to know it was his granddaughter experiencing it of all people with that Doctor of hers. The way she spoke about him — dazzling, she'd called him the last time, and that clearly hadn't changed. And from the little Wilfred had been able to observe of the Doctor thus far, it seemed a very mutual feeling.

The kettle boiled and then Donna was busying herself with the tea. She used a liberal amount of sugar for the third mug, stirring it in as she continued to talk, then left it to cool on the counter while bringing his and hers to the table.

"And that about covers it, I think," she said eventually. Then she glanced to the counter at the third mug, which was no longer steaming quite as much. "That's probably done." She stood and stuck her head out the back door. "Doctor! Tea's ready."

He heard footfalls on the hill and then Donna was letting the alien past her into the kitchen. "Nearly finished. Just one or two tweaks and then it should be good as new. Better, actually!"

"Oh, it could've waited, really. I meant to tell Donna she ought to call you down sooner, but she was just telling me all the wonderful things you two have been doing out there."

"Nah, it's for his own good. He never lets it cool on his own. Burns his tongue every time," Donna informed him, rolling her eyes with a look caught somewhere between fond and exasperated.

"Guilty as charged," said the Doctor, who had just taken an incredibly large gulp from his mug. He smacked his lips together. "So, ready to see some new planets?"

"Well I suppose I better be!" Wilfred remarked with a chuckle. Donna smiled, looking between him and the alien. He stood, dropping his mug off in the sink on the way. "Will there be aliens on them?"

"Some," the Doctor answered.

"How about those whatsit, potato people?"

"Sonteran," Donna helped him.

"Sont_ a _ran, Donna," the Doctor corrected automatically. He looked more amused than anything at what appeared to be an old argument. "And no, their planet is far away from this galaxy. Fortunately." He drained the rest of his mug and then was leading their little group all back up the hill. He'd grabbed Donna's hand so she walked along at his side, and Wilf brought up the rear.

Wilfred settled himself in his chair, waiting as the Doctor fiddled a few moments more with the telescope. It was completely dark by the time he and Donna placed it in front of him.

"Controls are all the same. Now, just to give you an idea of what she can do, I think I'll pick out the first planet." The alien looked through it and slowly adjusted where it was pointed to until stopping suddenly. "Oh yes! That's a good one. What do you think?"

He'd asked Wilf's granddaughter knelt beside him and motioned Donna forward, holding the telescope steady as she leaned in close for a look.

"It's gorgeous! Which one is that?"

"Well, the name's a bit tricky. It's officially part of the Trappist-1 system, a dwarf star in the constellation Aquarius discovered by humanity right at the turn of the century. They won't spot the exoplanets till a bit into your future. This one was originally named Trappist-f, but there was a Twitter poll and, well, things got ugly."

Donna looked away from the telescope and to the Doctor quizzically. "Twitter?"

"Oh, right. It's only just got started, hasn't completely taken off yet. That's in your future, too." He grinned at her, and Donna grinned right back. The two of them burst into laughter. He'd never seen Donna so carelessly happy before, and the Doctor, well, there was nothing but joy in his expression as he looked at her and laughed.

One of his hands was resting on the small of Donna's back.

As if sensing Wilf's eyes, the Doctor looked round and his hand was quickly snatched away. "Er, but why don't we let Wilfred see for himself?" Donna also turned in his direction, shifting back from the Doctor and looking a little red in the face to him, even in the dark.

"Yeah, Gramps, give it a go," she urged quickly. "Here we are hogging your telescope. Not like we can't just have a look at it ourselves later up close."

"Oh, I don't mind. Nothing quite like stargazing sometimes," he said, leaning forward in his chair. He thought to mention its rather romantic nature, but decided that might be showing his hand a little much.

Then he'd put his eye to the telescope and forgot nearly everything else.

"Oh. Oh!" He'd certainly never seen anything quite like this planet before. And certainly never so clear. "That's an alien planet?"

"Uninhabited right now, actually. What's exciting about it is that it and its fellows are terrestrial, and three of them fall within the habitable zone."

"Habitable for us?" He looked to the Doctor and got a nod. "So we might get there someday?"

"Oh, humans," the alien gave a fond shake of the head, "you lot will get everywhere."

"He's not kidding. I've seen it," Donna added. "All across the universe."

"Amazing," breathed Wilf. "Just amazing." He went back to looking through the telescope, hardly able to believe what he was seeing. Yet the Doctor and Donna were the living, breathing proof. The things they'd seen, this was only a fraction.

All three were startled by the sound of a car door slamming around the other side of the house.

"That'll be mum," Donna realized.

"You two better be off, then," said Wilf. He was sad to see them go, even if it meant his Donna was getting back out there and seeing the stars with her Doctor at her side. "Stop by whenever you've got some more stories."

He stood to hug Donna, who murmured in his ear, "We will."

The Doctor returned his salute with a nod. "Wilfred, always a pleasure."

"And you, Doctor. Thank you."

He shook his head. "Thank Donna. All her idea, and a rather brilliant one as always, I'd say."

The alien looked at her for a moment, and it was clear to even a human like Wilf the emotion on his face. Then he ducked his head and stepped into his box.

Donna lingered. "Listen, just tell mum I said hello, I suppose."

"I will," he promised. "Oh, Donna?"

She'd half-turned towards the blue box herself, but looked back round. "Yeah, Gramps?"

"That ring the Doctor gave you — he ever ask for it back?"

Donna tensed. "No. Why?"

Wilfred affected a shrug. "No reason," he said lightly.

A frown appeared on her face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I may not know much about alien blokes, but when a man gives you a ring—"

"Oh, don't you start," she warned. "We are not together."

"Donna?" The Doctor called from inside the ship. "Everything alright?"

"Coming!" She lowered her voice again and said, "Seriously, not even close."

"If you say so, sweetheart."

She watched him through narrowed eyes for a moment. "I'll come round soon as I can," she eventually stated. "See you, Gramps."

"Go see those stars!"

She cracked a smile again, then was walking through the doors of the Doctor's ship to rejoin her alien. Wilfred backed up a couple steps as that wheezing and groaning he'd first heard began anew, and the ship slowly faded away from sight. He let out a laugh. How marvellous!

The back door opened moments later. "Dad, are you up there on the hill? What was that racket?"

"No idea," he answered. "Must have been one of the neighbors or something."

"And what are all these mugs doing in the sink? Did you have company?" Sylvia demanded.

Wilfred smiled to himself. "Don't you worry about that, love. I'll do the washing up." He looked back to his newly improved telescope and then up to the stars. Maybe some night he'd be gazing up at all those undiscovered planets and see a little blue box and the wonderful couple — whether they knew it or not — that traveled in it.

"Just give us a few," he called down.


End file.
